The South Jersey/Pinelands region has more than its share of local legend and lore, but perhaps our most famous spawn is the so-called Jersey Devil. Man or beast, corporal or specter, fact or fiction, Jersey Devil stories have been a source of many a heated debate over the generations. Throughout this site, you’ll see references to Jersey Devil sightings at some of most popular outdoor attractions. Are they real? That’s for you to decide…
To find out more about Jersey Devil folklore, start with these websites:
For all his notoriety, the Jersey Devil is hardly the only legendary figure to come out of these parts. Here are a few others…
Peggy Clevenger of Pasadena was said to have magical powers and a peculiar habit: she liked to turn herself into a rabbit! This was quite startling to some of the local dogs, who, when they closed the gap on their quarry, suddenly found themselves confronting a full-grown woman.
Apparently Peggy yearned for a little variety from time to time. On at least one occasion she turned herself into a big, green lizard and sat on a fence. One of her neighbors, wanting to cross the fence, was alarmed by the reptile and threw a rock, hitting it in the head. The next day, Peggy was seen with a big, black eye.
Peggy was married to Bill Clevenger, renowned in his own right for drinking and brawling. Fearful of impending death, he told Peggy that he would surely go to Hell and that, if it was as hot as people claimed he would send her a message. Soon after, Bill passed away and the next day the family’s well began to boil and bubble.
Folks knew that Peggy had a stocking full of gold in her house, but no one knew how she acquired it. Some say she died in her house when a wildfire raged through the area. Others claim that a man named Bill Mullen murdered her, searched for the gold and set fire to the house. In any case, her charred body was pulled from the ashes, but the gold was never found.
Joe Mulliner was one of the most famous bandits in the Pine Barrens during Revolutionary Days. Known as the “Dancing Bandit,” he claimed to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Joe and his gang hid out in the dense swamps near Egg Harbor City, emerging to crash parties and terrorize homesteads, robbing and plundering at will.
Joe was a tall, good-looking Englishman who favored uniforms and fancy clothes. He loved to dance and when robbing a party, would always dance with the prettiest girl before he left. On one such occasion, he interrupted a wedding and found the bride sobbing on the back porch. Concluding that she was being force to wed, he fired his brace of fancy pistols at the groom, causing him to flee. Of course, Joe claimed a dance with the reluctant bride before riding off into the swamp.
On one occasion when Joe was elsewhere his gang robbed and terrorized a widow whose four sons were way serving in the war. The stole her pigs, cleared out the house and burned it to the ground. Neighbors rallied round and rebuilt the house. Soon after, the woman awoke one morning to find a bag of coins hanging on the branch outside her window. The locals were sure the Dancing Bandit left the gold. Was Joe Mulliner really a Robin Hood at heart?
Finally, Joe was arrested while dancing at a tavern, taken to Trenton, tried and hanged, although one legend claims he was left hanging from a big oak at the Forks of the Mullica, near Batsto as a caution to all who might be temped to take up a similar life.
Jonas Cattell was born in 1758 in Woodbury, just outside the Pine Barrens, but he loved the woods and trails of the pines and spent hours exploring them as a youth.
During the Revolution, when he was only eighteen, Jonas learned about a surprise attack the Hessians were planning against the American troops at Fort Mercer. On foot, he raced through the Pines and slipped through the lines to warn the Continental troops. Jonas’s speed, endurance and knowledge of the back-woods trails enabled him to reach the fort before the Hessians. The Americans were victorious, nearly annihilating the Hessians.
After the war, used his woodsman’s skills to work as a hunter and guide. He allegedly outraced horse-mounted hunters and once won a bet by running a 160-mile round trip from Woodbury to Cape May in just two days. When he was fifty he outpaced an Indian in a race from Mount Holly to Woodbury.
Jonas Cattell died in 1854 at the age of 96. He is buried in a wooded grove in Deptford Township. The local Kiwanis Club keeps his memory alive with an annual long-distance run from Haddonfield to Fort Mercer.
Jerry Munion, or Munyhon, lived during the era of iron production in the Pines. He was renowned as a wizard, or perhaps hypnotist, who played all kinds of tricks on people. One day in the late 1700s he and two of his buddies applied for work at Hanover Furnace near Whitesbog in Pemberton Township.
Fearing the trickster might have links to the Devil, the manager refused to hire them. Munion’s face darkened with anger and he warned the manager that he would be sorry. Moments later, the furnace smokestack began to billow black smoke, threatening to smother the fire. A flock of crows had clogged the stack. Again, Munion asked for a job and the quaking manager complied. With a wave of his hand, Munion dispersed the crows and the furnace returned to normal.
Munion bought his groceries with clam shells, somehow convincing the shop owner that they were coins. He loved to make women believe they were standing in rising water, causing them to snatch up their long skirts and reveal their legs. He was said to have a walking-stick that would fetch him liquor or turn into an axe and chop wood for him.
One day Jerry stopped at a woodchopper’s cabin in the woods near Hanover and demanded food. When the home-maker refused, he made her dance until she relented. Not satisfied with this, he told her to cut his hair, which she again refused to do, leaving him to go fetch water. When she returned, Munion had his head in his lap, cutting his own hair.
Munion faded from view and no one knows his end, but the stories about him have remained, handed down through the generations in the Pines.
Sammy Giberson was the most famous musician of the Pines. He was part of a pioneer family who settled in Ocean County and whose descendents still live in the area. Known as “Fiddler Sammy Buck” he lived deep in the woods during the middle of the 19th Century.
Sammy loved to play, dance and enjoy a nip or two of the local Jersey Lightning. He was welcomed in every tavern in the vicinity, where he often entered contests with other fiddlers and dancers which he always won.
One night in a tavern near New Gretna Sammy, who was feeling no pain, bragged that he was the best fiddler ever and could probably out-play the Devil himself. As he staggered home along a sand road in the woods a dark figure appeared in his path. “Sammy Giverson!” boomed a deep voice. ”So you think you can beat me?” “I can beat anybody!” Sammy replied.
The Devil began to fiddle while Sammy danced, then Sammy played while the Devil capered, and so on it went until dawn. Exhausted, the two came to an agreement, with the Devil promising to teach Sammy new songs that no one else could play. Giberson continued to perform marvelous music throughout the Pinelands, including the famous “Air Tune” that no other player could master.
From that time onwards, Sammy would brag about his friend and on moonlit nights would vanish into the woodlands, where the sound of two fiddles could be heard making beautiful music together.
Indian Ann Roberts, reputedly the last of the Pine Barrens’ Lenape Indians, lived on Dingletown Road in Tabernacle during the late 1800s. She farmed, made baskets, and peddled them door to door with the berries she picked and vegetables she grew. She smoked a long-stemmed pipe and walked many miles with her two dogs on a leash. When asked the names of the dogs, she replied, “Ino and Thano.” (I know and they know). Ann regularly walked to Vincentown to catch the train to Mount Holly where she peddled her wares.
She died in 1894, having outlived two husbands and most of her children.